Intelligent multi-device content distribution based on internet protocol addressing

ABSTRACT

A system for intelligent multi-device content distribution based on associated internet protocol (IP) addressing, including: identifying, by a computer processor, first advertising content served to a first client device; identifying a first client device IP address associated with the first client device, where the first client device is linked to a household profile; submitting, to a content exchange service, a request for content placement opportunities; receiving content placement opportunities from the content exchange service, where one or more content placement opportunities identify at least a portion of a second client device IP address of a second client device; linking the second client device to the household profile; selecting second advertising content based on the first advertising content; and providing the second advertising content for the content placement opportunity to be displayed on the second client device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 17/140,110, Attorney Docket tubi.00004.us.c.3, “INTELLIGENTMULTI-DEVICE CONTENT DISTRIBUTION BASED ON INTERNET PROTOCOLADDRESSING,” filed Jan. 3, 2021, the entire disclosure of which isincorporated by reference herein, in its entirety, for all purposes.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/140,110 is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 16/510,985, Attorney Dockettubi.00004.us.c.2, “ADAPTIVE MULTI-DEVICE CONTENT GENERATION BASED ONASSOCIATED INTERNET PROTOCOL ADDRESSING,” filed Jul. 15, 2019, theentire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, in itsentirety, for all purposes.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 16/510,985 is a continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 14/846,277, Attorney Dockettubi.00004.us.c.1, “ADAPTIVE MULTI-DEVICE CONTENT GENERATION BASED ONASSOCIATED INTERNET PROTOCOL ADDRESSING,” filed Sep. 4, 2015, the entiredisclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein, in itsentirety, for all purposes.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/846,277 is a continuation of Ser.No. 14/056,897, Attorney Docket tubi.00004.us.n.1, “INTERACTIVEADVERTISING,” filed Oct. 17, 2013, the entire disclosure of which isincorporated by reference herein, in its entirety, for all purposes.

U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/056,897 claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/800,348, Attorney Dockettubi.00001.us.p.1, “CONNECTED-TV ADVERTISING, INTERACTIVE VIDEOADVERTISING, IMAGE-BASED INTERACTIVE ADVERTISING, SECOND SCREENADVERTISING, HOUSEHOLD TARGETING, AND PERSONALIZED TV ADVERTISEMENTS,”filed Mar. 15, 2013.

BACKGROUND

Recent advancements in computing technology have led to a movement forcreating internet-connected devices. Inexpensive hardware hascontributed to a trend in which traditionally non-connected devices(e.g., televisions, radios, etc.) now include network connectivity. Thishas also lead to significant technical challenges in the development ofclient software and services necessary to support these devices.

As the number and type of network-connected computing devices hasincreased, there has been a fragmentation of content availability andquality among the various platforms. Even the same application can havean entirely different user experience when ported or developed formultiple different platforms and device form factors.

A model for providing content to connected devices involves servingcontent to a native client application executing on the connecteddevice. Companies wishing to have a presence on such devices arerequired to invest significant resources in development and support fornative applications across a variety of different platforms.Complicating matters, some devices lack the execution environment andrendering functionality required by traditional native applications.These devices are strictly limited in the number and type ofapplications that they support. As a result of these limitations, manyof these devices have limited or no built-in content-providingfunctionality.

SUMMARY

Embodiments provide technical solutions to the aforementioned and othertechnical problems. For example, one or more embodiments allowplatform-independent content distribution to “thin” client applicationsexecuting on various client devices and across a variety of differentplatforms. As a result, for example, resource-intensive operations(e.g., video encoding or webpage rendering) may be avoided on devicesthat lack the execution environment and rendering functionality requiredby traditional native applications. Further, developers cansubstantially avoid the difficult, costly, and near impossible task ofdeveloping platform-specific applications. In another example, one ormore embodiments provide interactive user interfaces that may becontrolled, manipulated, or navigated by a thin client applicationexecuting on a client device. A server may provide an instruction setdefining client-interactive controls and identifying a set of images(optionally rendered by the server) to a thin client application. Theinstruction set may be used to provide a user interface. A userengagement request from a thin client application may include a commandfor navigating from a current page to a previous page, thereby providinga web browser-like experience on devices that lack the executionenvironment and rendering functionality required by traditional nativeapplications. In yet another example, one or more embodiments allowtargeting or retargeting of content to client devices based on metadatarelated to internet protocol (IP) addressing.

In general, in one aspect, embodiments relate to a system forintelligent multi-device content distribution based on associatedinternet protocol (IP) addressing, the system including a computerprocessor; an advertising engine executing on the computer processor andconfigured to: identify first advertising content served to a firstclient device; identify a first client device IP address associated withthe first client device, where the first client device is linked to ahousehold profile; submit, to a content exchange service, a request forcontent placement opportunities; receive content placement opportunitiesfrom the content exchange service, where one or more content placementopportunities identify at least a portion of a second client device IPaddress of a second client device; and linking the second client deviceto the household profile by: determining a percentage of requests of thesecond client device originating from an IP address common with thefirst client device IP address; comparing the percentage to a predefinedthreshold; and linking the second client device to the household profilebased on determining that the threshold is exceeded; and a contentprovider configured to: select second advertising content based on thefirst advertising content; and provide the second advertising contentfor the content placement opportunity to be displayed on the secondclient device.

In general, in one aspect, embodiments relate to a method forintelligent multi-device content distribution based on associatedinternet protocol (IP) addressing, the method including: identifying, bya computer processor, first advertising content served to a first clientdevice; identifying a first client device IP address associated with thefirst client device, where the first client device is linked to ahousehold profile; submitting, to a content exchange service, a requestfor content placement opportunities; receiving content placementopportunities from the content exchange service, where one or morecontent placement opportunities identify at least a portion of a secondclient device IP address of a second client device; linking the secondclient device to the household profile by: determining a percentage ofrequests of the second client device originating from an IP addresscommon with the first client device IP address; comparing the percentageto a predefined threshold; and linking the second client device to thehousehold profile based on determining that the threshold is exceeded;selecting second advertising content based on the first advertisingcontent; and providing the second advertising content for the contentplacement opportunity to be displayed on the second client device.

In general, in one aspect, embodiments relate to a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium including a plurality of instructionsfor intelligent multi-device content distribution, the plurality ofinstructions executing on at least one computer processor to enable thecomputer processor to: identify first advertising content served to afirst client device; identify a first client device IP addressassociated with the first client device, where the first client deviceis linked to a household profile; submit, to a content exchange service,a request for content placement opportunities; receive content placementopportunities from the content exchange service, where one or morecontent placement opportunities identify at least a portion of a secondclient device IP address of a second client device; linking the secondclient device to the household profile by: determining a percentage ofrequests of the second client device originating from an IP addresscommon with the first client device IP address; comparing the percentageto a predefined threshold; and linking the second client device to thehousehold profile based on determining that the threshold is exceeded;select second advertising content based on the first advertisingcontent; and provide the second advertising content for the contentplacement opportunity to be displayed on the second client device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments of the present invention are illustrated by way of example,and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanyingdrawings and in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements.

FIGS. 1A and 1B show schematic diagrams of systems, in accordance withone or more embodiments of the invention.

FIG. 2 depicts a flowchart of an exemplary process, in accordance withone or more embodiments of the invention.

FIGS. 3A-3E and 4 show exemplary depictions of advertising content, inaccordance with one or more embodiments of the invention.

FIGS. 5 and 6 are block diagrams of exemplary computing systems, inaccordance with one or more embodiments of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightswhatsoever.

Reference will now be made in detail to the various embodiments of thepresent disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in theaccompanying drawings. While described in conjunction with theseembodiments, it will be understood that they are not intended to limitthe disclosure to these embodiments. On the contrary, the disclosure isintended to cover alternatives, modifications and equivalents, which maybe included within the spirit and scope of the disclosure as defined bythe appended claims. Furthermore, in the following detailed descriptionof the present disclosure, numerous specific details are set forth inorder to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure.However, it will be understood that the present disclosure may bepracticed without these specific details. In other instances, well-knownmethods, procedures, components, and circuits have not been described indetail so as not to unnecessarily obscure aspects of the presentdisclosure.

In general, embodiments of the invention provide methods and systems forproviding content for a client device. An instruction set defining oneor more client-interactive controls can be identified and sent to theclient device. The client device can be configured to display an imagecorresponding to at least one of the client-interactive controls. Inresponse to a user input, the client device can be configured to performan action based on a selected client-interactive control and a currentstate of the client device.

In general, embodiments of the invention provide methods and systems forproviding advertisement content for a client device. An instruction setdefining one or more client-interactive controls can be identified andsent to the client device. The client device can be configured todisplay an image corresponding to at least one of the client-interactivecontrols. In response to a user input, the client device can beconfigured to perform an action based on a selected client-interactivecontrol and a current state of the client device.

FIG. 1A shows a system (199) in accordance with one or more embodimentsof the invention. As shown in FIG. 1A, the system (199) has multiplecomponents including an advertising engine (100), a video streamingservice (102), a social media network (103), an advertiser (105), anadvertising exchange service (110), a reporting service (115), anadvertising repository (120), household (125), client devices (127 and129), and a network (130). Various components of the system (199) can belocated on the same device (e.g., a server, mainframe, desktop PersonalComputer (PC), laptop, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), telephone,mobile phone, kiosk, cable box, and any other device) or can be locatedon separate devices connected by a network (e.g., a local area network(LAN), the Internet, etc.). Those skilled in the art will appreciatethat there can be more than one of each separate component executing ona device, as well as any combination of these components within a givenembodiment of the invention.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to provide advertising content for one ormore client devices (e.g., 127 and 129). The advertising engine (100)can be configured to provide advertising content in conjunction and/orin association with content served by any number of content servers(e.g., advertising exchange service (110), a video streaming service, asocial media network, etc.). In one or more embodiments of theinvention, the advertising engine (100) is a component of an advertisingnetwork including one or more content servers configured to obtain andstore advertising content (e.g., in the advertising repository (120),for use by the advertising engine (100).

FIG. 1B shows an example implementation of the advertising engine (100)of FIG. 1A, in accordance with one or more embodiments of the invention.As shown in FIG. 1B, the advertising engine (100) has multiplecomponents including a primary advertising module (150) and aninteractive advertising module (155) including a headless web browser(156) and a content capture module (157). Various components of theadvertising engine (100) can be located on the same device (e.g., aserver, mainframe, Personal Computer (PC), and any other device) or canbe located on separate devices connected by a network (e.g., a localarea network (LAN), the Internet, etc.). Those skilled in the art willappreciate that there can be more than one of each separate componentexecuting on a device, as well as any combination of these componentswithin a given embodiment of the invention.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to receive a content request generated by aclient device. The content request can be any notification from theclient indicating that the client is ready for receiving content, inaccordance with various embodiments. In one or more embodiments, thecontent request is generated by a thin client application executing onthe client device and can include or be sent in conjunction withinformation identifying a platform of the client device. In the exampleof FIG. 1B, the content request is received by the primary advertisingmodule (150).

The client device can be configured to request a variety of differenttypes of advertising content (e.g., an advertisement, a video includingan advertisement, a web page including an advertisement, etc.). Forexample, the client device may require advertising content to bedisplayed before initiating playback of media content, the client devicemay require a commercial to be played upon reaching a predefinedthreshold time limit during playback of media content, the client devicecan detect a user request for advertising content, and/or the clientdevice can detect a user request for secondary advertising content ormenus during the display of an initial advertisement.

For example, a thin client application executing on a client device canbe configured to detect a user input requesting a video to be streamedto the client. In response to the user input, the thin clientapplication can generate a content request for a video advertisementassociated with the requested video. In another example, a client deviceis configured to automatically play a video advertisement upon opening aweb page. In this example, the content request is automaticallygenerated and sent upon opening the web page. In one or moreembodiments, the content request is routed through the advertisingexchange service (110) and/or one or more other entities (e.g., anothercontent provider service) before being sent to the advertising engine(100).

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to provide advertising content for theclient device in response to the content request. The advertisingcontent can be provided for a requesting application (e.g., a thinclient application) executing on the client device. Examples ofadvertising content can include, but are not limited to, video, audio, acommercial, a banner ad, a survey, a questionnaire, a menu page, awebpage, a landing page, a login page, a slideshow, a map, and/or aninput form. Advertising content can also include data and/or executablecode associated with one or more advertisements. For example, a“container” or other data which (1) identifies external advertisingcontent and/or (2) computer instructions for obtaining advertisingcontent. The client device can then use the data and/or instructions(e.g., the “container”) to request advertising content (e.g., anadvertisement) from any number of sources external to the client device.In the example of FIG. 1B, the primary advertising module (150) isconfigured to provide the advertising content in response to an initialcontent request.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to render some or all of the advertisingcontent for display on the client device. For example, the advertisingengine (100) can render a video advertisement for playback on aspecified mobile device platform. The advertising content can be astatic video and/or can be an interactive advertisement designed to bedisplayed in conjunction with, before, and/or after related content isdisplayed by the a client application. In one or more embodiments, incases where the client application (e.g., a thin client application) isnot capable of rendering some or all of the advertising content, theadvertising engine (100) can be configured to perform server-siderendering of some or all of the advertising content. In this case, thethin client application is configured to display the renderedadvertising content and to send user engagement requests to theadvertising engine (100) in order to request modifications to theadvertising content and/or to request new advertising content.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to receive a user engagement requestgenerated by the client device. The user engagement request can begenerated based on a user input associated with advertising content. Forexample, a thin client application can generate a user engagementrequest in response to a user clicking a “Learn More” button in anadvertisement (e.g., step “3” of FIG. 1B). In the example of FIG. 1B,the primary advertising module (150) receives the user engagementrequest from the client (127) and passes the request to the interactiveadvertising module (155) (e.g., by sending a message to the interactiveadvertising module (155)) to be fulfilled.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to render advertising content for thespecific platform of the client device. In one or more embodiments ofthe invention, an initial set of advertising content is generated andprovided for the client device (e.g., step “1” of FIG. 1B). If a userinput is detected in response to the initial content (e.g., step “3” ofFIG. 1B), secondary advertising content may be generated for the client(e.g., by the interactive advertising module (155) of FIG. 1B). Forexample, the advertising engine (100) can be configured to (1) stream avideo advertisement for the client device (initial advertising content,e.g., step “2” of FIG. 1B), (2) receive a user engagement request, andthen (3) send secondary advertising content (e.g., step “4” of FIG. 1B)in response to the user engagement request to the client device. In oneexample, initial advertising content can be sent in response to any typeof client request, while secondary advertising content can be sentspecifically in response to a user input associated with the initialadvertising content.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the initial advertisingcontent is provided in a static predefined format across all clients,while the secondary content is rendered specifically in the format ofeach requesting client. In other words, the secondary advertisingcontent can be rendered in a platform-dependent format of the clientdevice. For example, the initial content can be a video, image, audio,or other type of content streamed or provided for the client device in aplatform-independent format, while the secondary advertising contentrendered in a platform-dependent format includes a richer interactiveuser interface (UI) enabling user interaction. Alternatively, in one ormore embodiments of the invention, both the initial and secondarycontent are server-side rendered in the platform-dependent format of theclient and/or include dynamic UI elements. In yet another embodiment,the initial content is rendered by the client device, while theadvertising content is rendered by the advertising engine (100).

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to provide the rendered advertising contentfor display on the client device. Providing the advertising content caninclude establishing a connection with the client device, and/ormaintaining the connection while the advertising content is displayed toa user of the client device. In one or more embodiments, the advertisingengine (100) ends the connection upon closing or receiving a request toclose a user interface displaying the advertising content. As discussed,in the example of FIG. 1B, the rendered advertising module can beprovided by the interactive advertising module (155).

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to continue to leave open a connection withthe client in order to provide additional client instructions to theclient. For example, after receiving a content request, a connectionbetween the advertising engine (100) and client device may be opened.The advertising engine (100) may continue to leave the connection openthrough keep-alive signals. As a result, the advertising engine (100)may continue to provide further client instructions to the client devicethrough the open connection.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, an application (e.g., athin client application) executing on the client device includesfunctionality to receive the advertising content and to display theadvertising content to a user. In one or more embodiments, theadvertising content includes an interactive user interface. For example,the application can be configured to display the interactive userinterface to a user and to receive user input by an input device (e.g.,input device (628) of FIG. 5, discussed below). In response to the userinput, the application can send one or more user engagement requests tothe advertising engine (100) and can receive modifications to theadvertising content from the advertising engine (100). In the example ofFIG. 1B, the interactive user interface and subsequent modifications areprovided by the interactive advertising module (155) in response to oneor more user engagement requests.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, a user engagement requestincludes a command for modifying the advertising content. For example,an interactive user interface included in the advertising content can bemodified by sending a user engagement request including a command to theadvertising engine (100). The advertising engine (100) can be configuredto render new advertising content in response to one or more commands.For example, a command can be generated based on selecting a menu item,navigating a web page, moving a cursor, selecting a streaming video orother content, and/or any other form of interaction with advertisingcontent displayed by the client device. Each command can request apredefined modification to the content. For example, a scroll commandcan request a page to be scrolled, while a page selection command canrequest that a new page be displayed.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to provide one or more instructions for theclient application. An instruction can request the client application toperform a specified action. In one or more embodiments, the instructionrequests a tracking pixel from an external reporting service. In one ormore embodiments, the instruction can be associated with any portion ofthe advertising content and can include a condition for performing thespecified action. For example, the instruction can request a trackingpixel from a reporting service upon detecting engagement with aspecified user interface (UI) element. In this example, the clientapplication detects a user engagement with the UI element andsubsequently triggers the instruction to execute. Examples of engagementwith a UI element can include, but are not limited to, viewing a webpage, selecting a button, hovering over a display area, interacting witha widget, typing into a text box, and viewing a particular content itemfor a period of time exceeding a predefined threshold. In the example ofFIG. 1B, the one or more instructions are provided by the interactiveadvertising module (155) in conjunction with the secondary advertisingcontent. In another example, multiple instructions are each mapped todifferent web pages. In this example, in response to detectingengagement with a web page (e.g., detecting the user has viewed the webpage, displaying the web page, etc.), the advertising engine (100) isconfigured to execute the instruction in order to request a trackingpixel from a third party server (e.g., a reporting service). In one ormore embodiments, no initial advertising content and/or user engagementrequests are needed to generate and provide the secondary advertisingcontent. For example, the advertising engine (100) can be implementedwithout the primary advertising module (150)).

In one or more embodiments of the invention, an identifier of a clientdevice is identified using a tracking pixel or other tracking mechanismidentified by the client. For example, the tracking pixel may beidentified by a client device and a tracking request may be sent to theadvertising engine (100), reporting service (115), and/or a dataprovider, from the client device. The request can include an IP addressof the client device, and the IP address can be stored by theadvertising engine (100) in the advertising repository (120). Theadvertising engine (100) can be configured to associate the IP addresswith a user profile and/or a household profile, in accordance withvarious embodiments. In one or more embodiments of the invention, aresponse from the advertising engine (100), reporting service (115),and/or data provider is sent to the client device. The response mayinclude an image, pixel, or other requested content.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) is configured to send multiple instructions associated withvarious different portions of the advertising content to the clientdevice. Although some or all of the advertising content can be renderedby the advertising engine (100), in one or more embodiments, it may beadvantageous to perform certain actions on the client. For example, inorder to enable advertising reporting functionality of the reportingservice (115), the client application may be required to request thetracking pixels directly from the reporting service (115). In thisexample, certain reporting services gather client-specific data requiredfor performing analytics and/or calculating advertising-related data.Thus, the client must make certain requests (enabled by sendinginstructions to the client for those specific requests) directly to thereporting service (115) and/or other external entities.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) is configured to communicate with multiple reporting services. Forexample, the advertising engine (100) can be configured to providecontent referencing any number of tracking pixels or images, eachreferencing a different reporting service. An internal reporting servicecommunicatively coupled to the advertising engine (100) (or a componentof the advertising engine (100)) can perform analytics across multiplesets of data served to multiple clients of the advertising engine (100).A third party reporting service external to the advertising engine (100)can be configured to provide independently verified analytics/engagementdata to one or more advertising customers or partners having arelationship with the advertising engine (100).

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) is configured to identify content served to a client. Examples ofcontent can include, but is not limited to, broadcast media contentserved to a television device (e.g., a cable box), streaming videoserved to a mobile device, satellite media content served to a clientincluding a satellite receiver, local broadcast television contentreceived by a television including an antenna, and any other contentprovided to a client computing device. The content can include any typeof media, associated metadata, and/or advertisements in accordance withvarious embodiments of the invention.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) is configured to obtain an identifier associated with the client.The identifier can be any data usable to either uniquely or non-uniquelyidentify a client computing device or a network item associated with theclient computing device (e.g., a router, switch, gateway, etc.). Forexample, the advertising engine (100) may identify an internet protocol(IP) address associated with the television client or a router to whichthe client is connected.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) is configured to identify advertising content relevant to thecontent served to the client. In one or more embodiments, theadvertising engine (100) is configured to match the content to theadvertising content using any method for determining content relevancy(e.g., semantic analysis, keyword matching, etc.). For example, metadataassociated with an advertisement can be used to match the advertisementto a television program based on one or more keyword categories of theprogram. Determining relevancy can be performed by a related or externalmodule, such that the advertising engine (100) is configured to receivea mapping of advertising content to media content. For example, a userof the advertising exchange service (110) can select advertisements toassociate with media content using a user interface web portal.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) is configured to submit, to the advertising exchange service(110), a request to provide the advertising content for one or moreassociated computing devices. The associated devices can be identifiedbased on at least a portion of the identifier associated with theclient. For example, a portion of an internet protocol (IP) address ofthe client can be matched to IP addresses of one or more associateddevices.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) is configured to provide the advertising content for theassociated client computing devices. The advertising content can beprovided for the associated devices directly from the advertising engine(100), via the advertising exchange service (110), and/or via any otherintermediary entity, in accordance with various embodiments of theinvention. In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertisingengine (100) establishes a connection with each associated device andmaintains the connection while a user of the device navigates a menu ofoptions associated with the advertising content. For example, the menumay provide the user with one or more options for viewing advertisingcontent.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) is configured to receive content placement opportunities from theadvertising exchange service (110). Each content placement opportunitymay identify at least a portion of an identifier of a client (e.g., apartially masked IP address). The identifiers can be persistent andunique, or can be temporary and non-unique, in accordance with variousembodiments of the invention.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) is configured to determine an identifier of an associatedcomputing device. The advertising engine (100) can then be configured toidentify a relationship between the identifier of an associatedcomputing device and the identifier of the client. For example, theadvertising engine (100) can determine that an IP address of a tabletcomputer is the same as an IP address of a set-top box. In this example,the IP address of the initial client device can be assigned to anetworking device serving multiple other devices in a household or localarea network (LAN). Associated devices can be identified by theadvertising engine (100) based on sharing the same or similar IPaddress. IP addresses of the client devices can be determined, forexample, by means of a tracking pixel or other mechanism, in accordancewith various embodiments of the invention.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to receive an encoded identifier for adevice from an IP matching service (not shown). Thus, the advertisingengine (100) can receive a first encoded identifier associated with afirst client and a second encoded identifier associated with a secondclient. In one or more embodiments, the advertising engine (100)includes functionality to determine that the identifiers are associated(e.g., with the same IP address or household). Alternatively oradditionally, in one or more embodiments, the advertising engine (100)includes functionality to provide the identifiers to the IP matchingservice in conjunction with a request to determine if the identifiersare associated. The IP matching service can be configured to: (1)provide a response indicating that the identifiers are not related or(2) confirm that the identifiers are associated and/or identify a typeof association between the identifiers (e.g., same IP address, samehousehold, same geographic region, etc.).

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to obtain a partial identifier of aclient's IP address from an external source (e.g., advertising exchangeservice (110)). For example, the advertising engine (100) can obtain atruncated or redacted portion of the IP address for each client from theadvertising exchange service (110). The advertising exchange service(110) can be configured to truncate the IP address or otherwise mask theidentifier of the client such that the client is not directly/uniquelyidentifiable based on the truncated identifier. In this way, the exactidentifier of the client can be hidden from the advertising engine(100). At the same time, the advertising engine (100) can be configuredto match at least a portion of the IP addresses of two clients in orderto determine whether the IP addresses are associated (e.g., if the twoIP addresses correspond to devices in the same geographic region). Theadvertising engine (100) can be configured to identify any otherassociation between the IP addresses, depending on the amount of the IPaddress or other identifier provided, in accordance with variousembodiments.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to select a subset of the content placementopportunities associated with the identifier of the client. For example,the advertising engine (100) can obtain identifiers of each of thecontent placement opportunities (i.e., identifiers of the clientsassociated with each opportunity) and then compare each identifier tothe identifier of the client in order to determine whether anassociation exists. The advertising engine (100) can be configured todetermine any type of association between the clients. For example, asdiscussed above, the advertising engine (100) can be configured toprovide the identifiers to an IP matching service and to receive theassociation from the IP matching service. In another example, theadvertising engine (100) compares IP addresses of the content placementopportunities with the IP address of the client. In this example, theadvertising engine (100) can determine that a subset of the IP addressesmatch (or at least partially match) the IP address of the client.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to receive an identification of one or morecontent placement opportunities associated with the client computingdevice. Identification can be included in a request for advertisingcontent received directly from the client device, or via an intermediaryservice (e.g., advertising exchange service (110)). Providing theadvertising content for the client computing device can be performed inresponse to receiving the identification. Alternatively, in one or moreembodiments, the advertisement engine (100) is configured to provide theadvertising content and a set of identifiers of client devices and/or ahousehold or other grouping of related devices to the advertisingexchange service (110). The advertising exchange service (110) can thenserve the advertising content to the relevant devices according to theparameters provided by the advertising engine (100).

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to determine that the computing device is anon-mobile television client. The advertising engine (100) can beconfigured to detect multiple content requests from the computing deviceand to determine that the content requests originated from the samegeographic location or within a predefined geographic proximity. Basedon the requests originating from the geographic location or within apredefined geographic proximity, the advertising engine (100) can thendetermine that the device is non-mobile. The advertising engine (100)can be configured to determine that the computing device is non-mobilebased on identification data associated with the device (e.g., a mediaaccess control (MAC) address, internet protocol (IP) address, or otheridentifier). The identification data can identify a make, model, type,category or other attribute of the computing device. The advertisingengine (100) can be configured to determine that the computing device isa non-mobile television client based on the content served to thedevice. For example, a device that receives a predefined amount orpercentage of its content from a broadcast media source can beidentified as a television client.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to associate one or more devices with thehousehold profile based on one or more criteria. For example, theadvertising engine (100) can determine a percentage of the requests of adevice originating from a common IP address. The advertising engine(100) can then compare the percentage to a predefined threshold. If thethreshold is exceeded (e.g., at least 90% of the requests of the clientoriginate from a common IP address), the client device can be linked tothe household profile associated with the common IP address. In anotherexample, the advertising engine (100) is configured to link a clientdevice to the household profile based on determining that (1) the clientdevice is non-mobile and that (2) the client device requests data froman IP address associated with the household profile. In this example,mobile client devices may be associated with the household profile uponsatisfying one or more different criteria.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to construct a household profile associatedwith the IP address. The household profile can be constructed at leastin part based on the content served to one or more clients within thehousehold. For purposes of this disclosure, a household can refer to anygrouping of related or associated computing devices. Examples of ahousehold can include a local area network of a residential address, awide area network of a business, and devices across multiple separatedwellings within a multi-dwelling structure. The advertising engine(100) can be configured to include content preferences (e.g., commonlyviewed topics/genres/categories of content) as part of the householdprofile. The household profile can further include informationidentifying devices within the household (e.g., operatingsystem/platform, make/model, type of device, etc.), users of thehousehold (e.g., demographic information about multiple users), and/orbehavioral habits (e.g., typical access times, average session duration,requesting URLs, favorite/commonly visited websites, browsing history,and etc.). In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertisingengine (100) is configured to identify relevant advertising content toserve to one or more client devices based on the household profile. Theadvertising engine (100) can also be configured to build and/orsupplement the household profile based on content received by any numberof client devices associated with a common identifier of the household.For example, multiple computing devices identifying the same or relatedIP addresses can be designated as being within a common household. Inthis example, the content received by the multiple computing devices isused to create the household profile.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to create/modify the household profilebased on one or more non-mobile client devices. The advertising engine(100) can be configured to associate client devices with a householdprofile based on one or more attributes of the client device. Forexample, the advertising engine (100) may ignore mobile devices whencreating/modifying a household profile. Thus, given a set of devicesrequesting content from a common IP address associated with a householdprofile, the advertising engine (100) may be configured to link only thenon-mobile devices of the set of devices to the household profile.Alternatively, in another example, the advertising engine (100) mayweight non-mobile devices more heavily than mobile devices increating/modifying the household profile.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to assign, based on a frequency and/orproportion of content requests, a new computing device to the householdprofile. For example, 50% of the requests may originate from a common IPaddress, while the remaining 50% originate from other IP addresses. Inthis example, the advertising engine (100) determines that at least apredefined portion of the requests (i.e., exceeding a predefinedpercentage) originate from the common IP address and, in response,assign the client device to the household profile. The advertisingengine (100) can also use user-provided information to associate othercomputing devices with the household profile. For example, theadvertising engine (100) may request confirmation of whether the clientdevice is part of the household directly from the user (e.g., through aprompt displayed by the client). The user can then indicate whether thedevice is part of the household or not (e.g., “Are you currentlyconnecting from your home?”). The advertising engine (100) can also beconfigured to receive information associating one or more client deviceswith the household from a third party entity. For example, theadvertising engine (100) may receive information associating the clientdevice to the household from an Internet service provider (ISP) servingthe client device.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to provide relevant content to the newcomputing device based on the household profile. The advertising enginemay calculate a relevance (e.g., a relevance score) between a variety ofcandidate content items and the household profile. Keywords, categories,and/or other attributes of the household profile can be matched orscored to similar attributes among a set of candidate content items.Based on the calculated relevance, the advertising engine (100) can thenselect a subset of the highest ranking candidate content items to beprovided to the new computing device. The relevant content provided tothe new computing device (or any number of associated devices) caninclude a customized advertisement based on household informationassociated with the IP address. The customized advertisement may includeor be served in conjunction with a tracking pixel, in accordance withvarious embodiments of the invention.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to identify a user profile associated withthe computing device. While the household profile may be associated withmultiple users and/or devices associated with a common location, theuser profile may be specific to an individual user. The user profile caninclude identifying information of the user, browsing history, contentviewing history, references to one or more external sources of userinformation (e.g., a social networking profile), location information(e.g., home address), billing information, and/or any other informationassociated with an individual user. In one or more embodiments of theinvention, the advertising engine (100) is configured to obtain userprofile information from a variety of external sources (e.g., partnerentities, advertising exchange service (110), billing module (notshown), and etc.) and/or to aggregate user profile information in theadvertising repository (120). For example, the advertising engine (100)can be configured to obtain HTTP cookie data from a client device and toutilize the cookie data in order to create or augment a user profile ofa user. User profile information can also include subscriptioninformation (e.g., from a streaming media service) and/or membershipdata from an affiliated website or data provider.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to supplement the household profile basedon the user profile. One or more user profiles can be linked to ahousehold profile and/or used to select or modify a representativehousehold profile (e.g., a ranking of favorite genres, contentcategories, etc.) which may be then used to select relevant content fordevices within the household. The advertising engine (100) can beconfigured to use the most granular information available to selectrelevant content for a given client device. Thus, for example, if nouser profile information is associated with the device, the advertisingengine (100) may use household profile information to select relevantcontent. If no household profile information is associated with theclient device, the advertising engine (100) may use associated locationand/or demographic information to select relevant content for the clientdevice.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to provide an instruction to request atracking pixel from an external reporting service (115) at a predefinedinterval. In response to the instruction, the client application canthen request the tracking pixel from the reporting service (115) at thepredefined interval while displaying the advertising content. Uponclosing of the advertising content, the client application can beconfigured to cease requesting the tracking pixel. In one or moreembodiments, the reporting service (115) is configured to estimate adisplay time of the advertising content based on a number of accesses ofthe tracking pixel from the reporting service. Thus, if the instructiondictates that the pixel should be requested every 2 seconds, thereporting service (115) can be configured to calculate a number of times(N) the tracking pixel was requested during the current session, and toestimate the display time as N*2.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) is configured to obtain some or all of the advertising contentfrom the advertising exchange service (110). The advertising engine(100) can be configured to perform required rendering for variousdifferent client platforms and to serve the rendered content to one ormore client devices. Furthermore, the advertising engine (100) can beconfigured to receive requests on behalf of client devices from theadvertising exchange service (110). Thus, the advertising exchangeservice (110) can include functionality to match specific advertisingcontent to client requests based on predefined advertiser subscriptiondata or other related information.

In one example, the advertising exchange service (110) may providecontent placement opportunities on client devices to potentialadvertisers (e.g., through an automatic bidding process). Accordingly,the advertising exchange service (110) may act as a “middleman” betweenthe advertiser (105) and a client device (e.g., 127 and 129). Forexample, the advertising exchange service (110) may be coupled with theclient device through the network (130). The advertising exchangeservice (110) may request advertising content that will be ultimatelyprovided to the client device. For example, the advertising exchangeservice (110) may receive the content request from the client device andin turn communicate the content request to the advertising engine (100).Alternatively, the advertising exchange service (110) may determine thatan advertisement should be shown on the client device and thereforegenerate a content request for an advertisement from the advertisingengine (100) that will be ultimately provided to the client device. Inone or more embodiments of the invention, user engagement requests fromthe client are also routed through the advertising exchange service(110). Regardless of the format or specific request, user engagementrequest can refer to any request or series of requests resulting from auser input associated with advertising content. Thus, the advertisingexchange service (110) can be configured to receive a notification fromthe client and request advertising content from the advertising engine(100) in response to the notification. In this example, both thenotification and the subsequent request can be referred to as a singleuser engagement request, since the notification and the subsequentrequest were caused by a common user input.

In the example of FIG. 1B, the interactive advertising module (155)optionally includes a headless web browser (156) configured to renderadvertising content for one or more client platforms. Thus, in one ormore embodiments, some or all of the rendering functionality of theadvertising engine (100) is performed by the headless web browser. Theheadless web browser (156) (or other component of the advertising engineresponsible for rendering) can be configured to emulate presentation ofone or more web pages in order to serve content rendered for a specifiedplatform. The headless web browser (156) can be configured to render aninstance of the web page on the server, and to emulate interactions withthe instance of the web page in response to one or more user engagementrequests. By performing server-side rendering of some or all advertisingcontent delivered to a client, development of client applications may besimplified. In one or more embodiments of the invention, a traditionalweb browser and/or another component of the interactive advertisingmodule (155) is used to render advertising content for one or moreclients.

In the example of FIG. 1B, the content capture module (157) includesfunctionality to capture content intended for the client (127) from theheadless browser (156) and to provide the captured content to the client(127). In other words, the content capture module (157) is configured toextract the advertising content from the headless browser (156) and/orto ignore non-advertising related content generated, for example, duringemulation of a web page. Content generated by the headless browser canbe stored by the content capture module (157) and provided to the client(127) at a later time. For example, the content capture module (157) canbe configured to stream a video to the client (127) over a period oftime, although some portion (or the entirety) of the video can berendered by the headless browser (156) in advance of the streaming.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the client devices (127 and129) represent any type or form of computing device or system. Forexample, the client device may be an Internet-connected television, asmart television, a smart Blu-ray player, an automobileInternet-connected computer, a gaming console, a streaming set-top box,a mobile telephone, a tablet computer, a personal computer, and/or anyoperable to display advertisements or receive user actions. The termtelevision client can refer to any computing device connected to orassociated with a television. Examples of a television client caninclude a set-top box, smart TV, cable box, Internet-connectedtelevision, and any other television-related device. In one or moreembodiments of the invention, the client devices (127 and 129) are bothlocated within the same household (125). It should be appreciated thatin one or more embodiments of the invention, the client devices (127 and129) are not located within the same household.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the client devices (127 and129) may be operable to receive or capture user actions (e.g., atelevision remote control event, a gaming console controller event, atouchscreen event, a mobile telephone event, a tablet computer event, apersonal computer event, a gesture event, a movement event, a gyroscopeevent, an accelerometer event, a voice command, and/or any other eventreceivable by a client device). For example, a user may use thedirectional pad (D-pad) of a television remote control to providedirectional commands and the “OK” or “Select” button of the televisionremote control to make a selection.

FIGS. 3A-3E show exemplary depictions of advertising content, accordingto one or more embodiments of the invention. The advertising content maybe displayed on the client device. In one or more embodiments, theadvertising content includes one or more controls. For example, FIG. 3Ashows advertising content including a Learn More button (305) and FIG.3B shows advertising content including buttons (310) for More Info,Nearby Locations, Photo Gallery, and a back button. A user may perform aselection of one of the buttons (310). In response to the user input,the client device may generate a user engagement request to be sent tothe advertising engine (100) in order to request modifications to theadvertising content. For example, the user interface depicted by FIG. 3Bis modified to the user interface depicted by FIG. 3D in response to theuser clicking the “More Info” button shown in FIG. 3B. Upon clicking thebutton, a user engagement request is sent through an advertisingexchange service (110) to an advertising engine (100). In response tothe user engagement request, the advertising engine (100) renders theadvertising content depicted by FIG. 3D and sends the rendered contentto the client device for display. Similarly, the advertising contentdepicted by FIG. 3E is provided in response to the user selecting the“Nearby Locations” button shown in FIG. 3B.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the client device firstprovides the content request to the advertising exchange server (110),which in turn sends a content request to the advertising engine (100).In this way, the advertising exchange server (110) can be used toprovide a platform for selecting initial advertising content for one ormore users of the client device (e.g., 127 and 129).

Continuing to refer to the example of FIG. 3B, if the advertising engine(100) receives a client event reflecting a selection of the More Infobutton, the advertising engine (100) may generate an advertisement withmore information about a product (e.g., the advertisement shown by FIG.3C).

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising content isgenerated by an external service and stored in the advertisingrepository (120) for use by the advertising engine (100). Thus, itshould be appreciated that, instead of generating the advertisement, theadvertising engine (100) can be configured to instead access theadvertising repository (120) to provide a previously generatedadvertisement.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to first compress and/or encrypt theadvertising content before providing for the client device. Further, theadvertising engine (100) may be configured to send the advertisingcontent in various formats, for example, as an H.264 stream, as an MP4stream, as an HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) stream, and so on.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) includes functionality to send the advertising content over anetwork. For example, the advertising engine (100) may send theadvertising content through the network (130) to the client device foreventual display on the client device. In one or more embodiments,advertising content can be generated in response to one or more userengagement requests and sent to the client device. Accordingly, theadvertising content can include an interactive user interface that maybe controlled, manipulated, or navigated by a client device.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the client is configured tosend one or more user engagement requests to the advertising engine(100). For example, a user engagement request may include a command fornavigating from a current page to a previous page. For example, if FIG.3A depicts a previous screen, the command may request to navigate fromthe advertisement screen depicted in FIG. 3B back to the advertisementscreen depicted in FIG. 3A.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary depiction of an image including an indicationof at least one of the plurality of client-interactive controls,according to one or more embodiments of the invention. In the example ofFIG. 4 , the user of a television (TV) decides to view a televisionprogram. The user makes a selection corresponding to the program using atelevision remote. In response the user's selection, the televisionrequests content from an external advertising engine. The advertisingengine sends the fictional markup language formatted text, recited belowunder the heading “Fictional Markup Language Formatted Text,” to theclient.

The client receives the formatted text along with the image of FIG. 4containing depictions of a set of client-interactive controls (450 and455). As dictated by the fictional markup code example above, each ofthe client-interactive controls corresponds to at least one image,depending on the current image displayed by the client device. In otherwords, the markup code defines a set of images corresponding to thedepicted controls such that the client device can display a differentone of the images depending on the user's selection (e.g., using thetelevision remote). In this way, in one or more embodiments, the clientdevice can be configured to provide an interactive menu of options tothe user via static images and without the need for dynamic rendering ofa user interface. Thus, the client-interactive controls can be displayedacross a variety of different platforms and devices without the need forplatform-dependent rendering. Furthermore, thin client devices withoutthe hardware and/or software capability to perform complex client-siderendering of user interfaces can be used to provide a menu ofuser-selectable content provided by the remote advertising engine.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising engine(100) is a software application or a software service (e.g., a set ofrelated software applications) configured to execute on one or morehardware processors. The advertising engine (100) can include one ormore processes configured to concurrently send and receive data frommultiple external entities (e.g., client devices, advertising exchangeservice (110), advertising repository (120), etc.). The advertisingengine (100) can be a component of a service-oriented architecture (SOA)or any other software platform, either inside or outside of anadvertising network, in accordance with various embodiments. In one ormore embodiments of the invention, one or more components of theadvertising engine (100) reside in a cloud computing application in anetwork distributed system. In one or more embodiments of the invention,advertising engine (100) is integrated within or operatively connectedto one or more other components of the system (199) (e.g., advertisingexchange service (110)).

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the primary advertisingmodule (150) and the interactive advertising module (155) are softwareapplications or software services (e.g., a set of related softwareapplications) configured to execute on one or more hardware processors.The primary advertising module (150) and the interactive advertisingmodule (155) can include one or more processes configured toconcurrently send and receive data from multiple external entities(e.g., client devices, advertising exchange service (110), advertisingrepository (120), etc.). The primary advertising module (150) and/or theinteractive advertising module (155) can be components of aservice-oriented architecture (SOA) or any other software platform,either inside or outside of an advertising network, in accordance withvarious embodiments. In one or more embodiments of the invention, one ormore components of the primary advertising module (150) and/or theinteractive advertising module (155) reside in a cloud computingapplication in a network distributed system. In one or more embodimentsof the invention, primary advertising module (150) and/or theinteractive advertising module (155) is integrated within or operativelyconnected to one or more other components of the system (199) (e.g.,advertising exchange service (110)).

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising exchangeservice (110) and the reporting service (115) are software applicationsor software services (e.g., sets of related software applications)configured to execute on one or more hardware processors. Thus,advertising exchange service (110) and reporting service (115) caninclude one or more processes configured to concurrently send andreceive data from multiple external entities (e.g., advertising engine(100), etc.). The advertising exchange service (110) and/or thereporting service (115) can be components of a service-orientedarchitecture (SOA) or any other software platform, either inside oroutside of an advertising network, in accordance with variousembodiments. In one or more embodiments of the invention, one or morecomponents of the advertising exchange service (110) and/or thereporting service (115) reside in a cloud computing application in anetwork distributed system. In one or more embodiments of the invention,advertising exchange service (110) and/or the reporting service (115) isintegrated within or operatively connected to one or more othercomponents of the system (199).

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising repository(120) is a database and/or storage service residing on one or moreservers. For example, the advertising repository (120) can beimplemented as a storage service using service-oriented architecture(SOA) and configured to receive requests for data and to providerequested data to other components of the system (199). In anotherexample, the advertising repository (120) can include one or more tablesin a distributed database management system (DBMS), a clustereddatabase, a standalone flat file, and/or any storage software residingon one or more physical storage devices. Examples of a storage devicemay include, but are not limited to, a hard disk drive, a solid statedrive, and/or other memory device. Any type of database or storageapplication can be used, in accordance with various embodiments of theinvention.

In one or more embodiments of the invention, the advertising repository(120) is a separate application or set of applications residing on oneor more servers external (and communicatively coupled) to the system(199). Alternatively, in one or more embodiments of the invention, theadvertising repository (120) can be an integrated component of anadvertising system and/or can reside, either partially or entirely, onone or more common hardware devices (e.g., a server).

FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of a method for providing advertising content,in accordance with one or more embodiments of the invention. While thevarious steps in the flowchart are presented and described sequentially,one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that some or all of thesteps can be executed in different orders and some or all of the stepscan be executed in parallel. Further, in one or more embodiments of theinvention, one or more of the steps can be omitted, repeated, and/orperformed in a different order. Accordingly, the specific arrangement ofsteps shown in FIG. 2 should not be construed as limiting the scope ofthe invention. In one or more embodiments, the steps of FIG. 2 can beperformed by a client device (e.g., client (127 and 129) of FIG. 1A,discussed above).

In STEP 200, media content served to a television client is identified.The media content can be identified from a variety of sources, inaccordance with various embodiments of the invention. For example, acontent guide of a television network can be obtained and used toidentify information about programs served to a television client. Thecontent can be served from an external provider from the entityidentifying the content (e.g., advertising engine (100) of FIG. 1A,discussed above). The content can be identified in real-time or based ona historical record of viewed content.

In STEP 205, an internet protocol (IP) address associated with thetelevision client is identified. Identification of the IP address neednot involve determining the full IP address. Identification of the IPaddress may involve a partial identification (e.g., in scenarios where aportion of the IP is masked/hidden due to privacy concerns) or caninvolve receiving an encoded identifier corresponding to the IP address.Any form of identification of the IP address can be performed, inaccordance with various embodiments of the invention. For example, anadvertising engine may receive a partially masked IP address from anadvertising exchange service. Identification of the IP address may beperformed prior to, during, or after STEP 200 and STEP 210, inaccordance with various embodiments of the invention.

In STEP 210, advertising content relevant to the media content isidentified. The advertising content can be matched to the media contentbased on a household profile of a user or group of users, or any othermethod of determining relevancy. For example, metadata corresponding tothe broadcasted media content can be matched to a set of advertisingcontent categories. Content from matching advertising content categoriescan then be selected for inclusion in a result set of relevant content.

In STEP 215, a request is submitted to an advertising exchange service.In the example of FIG. 2 , the request is to provide the advertisingcontent for a client computing device identified based on at least aportion of the IP address. In one or more embodiments, the request toprovide relevant content can be submitted at any time prior to, during,or after STEPS 200-210. Also, in one or more embodiments, theadvertising exchange service is not required, and the request to providerelevant content is sent to a separate component (internal or externalto an advertising engine) configured to facilitate content transmissionto one or more client computing devices.

In STEP 220, the advertising content is provided for the clientcomputing device. The content can be transmitted through any number ofintermediary components or systems before arriving at the clientcomputing device. In one or more embodiments of the invention, theadvertisement content can be selected and provided to the client by aremote advertising engine (100) (e.g., advertising engine (100) of FIG.1A, discussed above). An advertising exchange service (e.g., advertisingexchange service (110) of FIG. 1A, discussed above) can also be used inconjunction with the advertising engine, in order to match contentand/or advertisers with one or more receiving clients.

Embodiments described herein may be discussed in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions residing on some form ofcomputer-readable storage medium, such as program modules, executed byone or more computers or other devices. By way of example, and notlimitation, computer-readable storage media may comprise non-transitorycomputer-readable storage media and communication media; non-transitorycomputer-readable media include all computer-readable media except for atransitory, propagating signal. Generally, program modules includeroutines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc., thatperform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.The functionality of the program modules may be combined or distributedas desired in various embodiments.

Computer storage media includes volatile and nonvolatile, removable andnon-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storageof information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures,program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but isnot limited to, random access memory (RAM), read only memory (ROM),electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory or othermemory technology, compact disk ROM (CD-ROM), digital versatile disks(DVDs) or other optical storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape,magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any othermedium that can be used to store the desired information and that canaccessed to retrieve that information.

Communication media can embody computer-executable instructions, datastructures, and program modules, and includes any information deliverymedia. By way of example, and not limitation, communication mediaincludes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection,and wireless media such as acoustic, radio frequency (RF), infrared, andother wireless media. Combinations of any of the above can also beincluded within the scope of computer-readable media.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of an example of a computing system 599capable of implementing embodiments of the present disclosure. Computingsystem 599 broadly represents any single or multi-processor computingdevice or system capable of executing computer-readable instructions.Examples of computing system 599 include, without limitation,workstations, laptops, client-side terminals, servers, distributedcomputing systems, handheld devices, or any other computing system ordevice. In its most basic configuration, computing system 599 mayinclude at least one processor 514 and a system memory 516.

Processor 514 generally represents any type or form of processing unitcapable of processing data or interpreting and executing instructions.In certain embodiments, processor 514 may receive instructions from asoftware application or module. These instructions may cause processor514 to perform the functions of one or more of the example embodimentsdescribed and/or illustrated herein.

System memory 516 generally represents any type or form of volatile ornon-volatile storage device or medium capable of storing data and/orother computer-readable instructions. Examples of system memory 516include, without limitation, RAM, ROM, flash memory, or any othersuitable memory device. Although not required, in certain embodimentscomputing system 599 may include both a volatile memory unit (such as,for example, system memory 516) and a non-volatile storage device (suchas, for example, primary storage device 532).

Computing system 599 may also include one or more components or elementsin addition to processor 514 and system memory 516. For example, in theembodiment of FIG. 5 , computing system 599 includes a memory controller518, an input/output (I/O) controller 520, and a communication interface522, each of which may be interconnected via a communicationinfrastructure 512. Communication infrastructure 512 generallyrepresents any type or form of infrastructure capable of facilitatingcommunication between one or more components of a computing device.Examples of communication infrastructure 512 include, withoutlimitation, a communication bus (such as an Industry StandardArchitecture (ISA), Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), PCI Express(PCIe), or similar bus) and a network.

Memory controller 518 generally represents any type or form of devicecapable of handling memory or data or controlling communication betweenone or more components of computing system 599. For example, memorycontroller 518 may control communication between processor 514, systemmemory 516, and I/O controller 520 via communication infrastructure 512.

I/O controller 520 generally represents any type or form of modulecapable of coordinating and/or controlling the input and outputfunctions of a computing device. For example, I/O controller 520 maycontrol or facilitate transfer of data between one or more elements ofcomputing system 599, such as processor 514, system memory 516,communication interface 522, display adapter 526, input interface 530,and storage interface 534.

Communication interface 522 broadly represents any type or form ofcommunication device or adapter capable of facilitating communicationbetween example computing system 599 and one or more additional devices.For example, communication interface 522 may facilitate communicationbetween computing system 599 and a private or public network includingadditional computing systems. Examples of communication interface 522include, without limitation, a wired network interface (such as anetwork interface card), a wireless network interface (such as awireless network interface card), a modem, and any other suitableinterface. In one embodiment, communication interface 522 provides adirect connection to a remote server via a direct link to a network,such as the Internet. Communication interface 522 may also indirectlyprovide such a connection through any other suitable connection.

Communication interface 522 may also represent a host adapter configuredto facilitate communication between computing system 599 and one or moreadditional network or storage devices via an external bus orcommunications channel. Examples of host adapters include, withoutlimitation, Small Computer System Interface (SCSI) host adapters,Universal Serial Bus (USB) host adapters, IEEE (Institute of Electricaland Electronics Engineers) 1394 host adapters, Serial AdvancedTechnology Attachment (SATA) and External SATA (eSATA) host adapters,Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) and Parallel ATA (PATA) hostadapters, Fibre Channel interface adapters, Ethernet adapters, or thelike. Communication interface 522 may also allow computing system 599 toengage in distributed or remote computing. For example, communicationinterface 522 may receive instructions from a remote device or sendinstructions to a remote device for execution.

As illustrated in FIG. 5 , computing system 599 may also include atleast one display device 524 coupled to communication infrastructure 512via a display adapter 526. Display device 524 generally represents anytype or form of device capable of visually displaying informationforwarded by display adapter 526. Similarly, display adapter 526generally represents any type or form of device configured to forwardgraphics, text, and other data for display on display device 524.

As illustrated in FIG. 5 , computing system 599 may also include atleast one input device 528 coupled to communication infrastructure 512via an input interface 530. Input device 528 generally represents anytype or form of input device capable of providing input, eithercomputer- or human-generated, to computing system 599. Examples of inputdevice 528 include, without limitation, a keyboard, a pointing device, aspeech recognition device, or any other input device.

As illustrated in FIG. 5 , computing system 599 may also include aprimary storage device 532 and a backup storage device 533 coupled tocommunication infrastructure 512 via a storage interface 534. Storagedevices 532 and 533 generally represent any type or form of storagedevice or medium capable of storing data and/or other computer-readableinstructions. For example, storage devices 532 and 533 may be a magneticdisk drive (e.g., a so-called hard drive), a floppy disk drive, amagnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, a flash drive, or the like.Storage interface 534 generally represents any type or form of interfaceor device for transferring data between storage devices 532 and 533 andother components of computing system 599.

In one example, databases 540 may be stored in primary storage device532. Databases 540 may represent portions of a single database orcomputing device or it may represent multiple databases or computingdevices. For example, databases 540 may represent (be stored on) aportion of computing system 599 and/or portions of example networkarchitecture 699 in FIG. 6 (below). Alternatively, databases 540 mayrepresent (be stored on) one or more physically separate devices capableof being accessed by a computing device, such as computing system 599and/or portions of network architecture 699.

Continuing with reference to FIG. 5 , storage devices 532 and 533 may beconfigured to read from and/or write to a removable storage unitconfigured to store computer software, data, or other computer-readableinformation. Examples of suitable removable storage units include,without limitation, a floppy disk, a magnetic tape, an optical disk, aflash memory device, or the like. Storage devices 532 and 533 may alsoinclude other similar structures or devices for allowing computersoftware, data, or other computer-readable instructions to be loadedinto computing system 599. For example, storage devices 532 and 533 maybe configured to read and write software, data, or othercomputer-readable information. Storage devices 532 and 533 may also be apart of computing system 599 or may be separate devices accessed throughother interface systems.

Many other devices or subsystems may be connected to computing system599. Conversely, all of the components and devices illustrated in FIG. 5need not be present to practice the embodiments described herein. Thedevices and subsystems referenced above may also be interconnected indifferent ways from that shown in FIG. 5 . Computing system 599 may alsoemploy any number of software, firmware, and/or hardware configurations.For example, the example embodiments disclosed herein may be encoded asa computer program (also referred to as computer software, softwareapplications, computer-readable instructions, or computer control logic)on a computer-readable medium.

The computer-readable medium containing the computer program may beloaded into computing system 599. All or a portion of the computerprogram stored on the computer-readable medium may then be stored insystem memory 516 and/or various portions of storage devices 532 and533. When executed by processor 514, a computer program loaded intocomputing system 599 may cause processor 514 to perform and/or be ameans for performing the functions of the example embodiments describedand/or illustrated herein. Additionally or alternatively, the exampleembodiments described and/or illustrated herein may be implemented infirmware and/or hardware.

For example, a computer program for requesting advertising content fordisplay by a thin client application may be stored on thecomputer-readable medium and then stored in system memory 516 and/orvarious portions of storage devices 532 and 533. When executed by theprocessor 514, the computer program may cause the processor 514 toperform and/or be a means for performing the functions required forcarrying out the process described with regard to the flowchart of FIG.4 (discussed above).

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an example of a network architecture 699 inwhich client systems 610, 620, and 630 and servers 640 and 645 may becoupled to a network 650. Client systems 610, 620, and 630 generallyrepresent any type or form of computing device or system, such asclients 127 and 129 of FIG. 1A.

Similarly, servers 640 and 645 generally represent computing devices orsystems, such as application servers or database servers, configured toprovide various database services and/or run certain softwareapplications (e.g., functionality of advertising engine 100 of FIG. 1A,discussed above). Network 650 generally represents any telecommunicationor computer network including, for example, an intranet, a wide areanetwork (WAN), a local area network (LAN), a personal area network(PAN), or the Internet.

With reference to computing system 599 of FIG. 5 , a communicationinterface, such as communication interface 522, may be used to provideconnectivity between each client system 610, 620, and 630 and network650. Client systems 610, 620, and 630 may be able to access informationon server 640 or 645 using, for example, a Web browser, thin clientapplication, or other client software. Such software may allow clientsystems 610, 620, and 630 to access data hosted by server 640, server645, or storage devices 670(1)-(N). Although FIG. 6 depicts the use of anetwork (such as the Internet) for exchanging data, the embodimentsdescribed herein are not limited to the Internet or any particularnetwork-based environment.

In one embodiment, all or a portion of one or more of the exampleembodiments disclosed herein are encoded as a computer program andloaded onto and executed by server 640, server 645, storage devices670(1)-(N), or any combination thereof. All or a portion of one or moreof the example embodiments disclosed herein may also be encoded as acomputer program, stored in server 640, run by server 645, anddistributed to client systems 610, 620, and 630 over network 650.

While the foregoing disclosure sets forth various embodiments usingspecific block diagrams, flowcharts, and examples, each block diagramcomponent, flowchart step, operation, and/or component described and/orillustrated herein may be implemented, individually and/or collectively,using a wide range of hardware, software, or firmware (or anycombination thereof) configurations. In addition, any disclosure ofcomponents contained within other components should be considered asexamples because many other architectures can be implemented to achievethe same functionality.

While various embodiments have been described and/or illustrated hereinin the context of fully functional computing systems, one or more ofthese example embodiments may be distributed as a program product in avariety of forms, regardless of the particular type of computer-readablemedia used to actually carry out the distribution. The embodimentsdisclosed herein may also be implemented using software modules thatperform certain tasks. These software modules may include script, batch,or other executable files that may be stored on a computer-readablestorage medium or in a computing system. These software modules mayconfigure a computing system to perform one or more of the exampleembodiments disclosed herein. One or more of the software modulesdisclosed herein may be implemented in a cloud computing environment.Cloud computing environments may provide various services andapplications via the Internet. These cloud-based services (e.g.,software as a service, platform as a service, infrastructure as aservice, etc.) may be accessible through a Web browser or other remoteinterface. Various functions described herein may be provided through aremote desktop environment or any other cloud-based computingenvironment.

The foregoing description, for purpose of explanation, has beendescribed with reference to specific embodiments. However, theillustrative discussions above are not intended to be exhaustive or tolimit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modificationsand variations are possible in view of the above teachings. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain theprinciples of the invention and its practical applications, to therebyenable others skilled in the art to best utilize the invention andvarious embodiments with various modifications as may be suited to theparticular use contemplated.

Embodiments according to the invention are thus described. While thepresent disclosure has been described in particular embodiments, itshould be appreciated that the invention should not be construed aslimited by such embodiments, but rather construed according to the belowclaims.

Fictional Markup Language Formatted Text:

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What is claimed is:
 1. A system for intelligent multi-device contentdistribution based on associated internet protocol (IP) addressing, thesystem comprising: a computer processor; an advertising engine executingon the computer processor and configured to: identify first advertisingcontent served to a first client device; identify a first client deviceIP address corresponding to the first client device, wherein the firstclient device is linked to a household profile; submit a request forcontent placement opportunities; receive content placement opportunitiesidentifying at least a portion of a second client device IP address of asecond client device; and linking the second client device to thehousehold profile by: determining a percentage of requests of the secondclient device originating from an IP address common with the firstclient device IP address; comparing the percentage to a predefinedthreshold; and linking the second client device to the household profilebased on determining that the threshold is exceeded; and a contentprovider configured to: select second advertising content based on thefirst advertising content; and provide the second advertising contentfor the content placement opportunity to be displayed on the secondclient device.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the first advertisingcontent and the second advertising content are related.
 3. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the first advertising content and the secondadvertising content are the same.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein thefirst client device is a non-mobile television client.
 5. The system ofclaim 1, further comprising determining that the first client device isa non-mobile television client, wherein the determining comprises atleast one selected from a group consisting of: determining that multiplecontent requests from the first client device originate from the samegeographic location, analyzing media access control (MAC) addressinformation corresponding to the first client device, analyzing make,model, type, or category information corresponding to the first clientdevice, analyzing the content served to the first client device,analyzing user submitted indications about the first client device, andanalyzing information associating the first client device with thehousehold from a third party entity.
 6. The system of claim 1, whereinthe first client device is a mobile device.
 7. The system of claim 1,wherein the first client device and the second client device are thesame device.
 8. The system of claim 1, wherein the household profilerepresents a grouping of related computing devices.
 9. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the advertising engine is further configured to:provide the first client device IP address to a content exchange servicein conjunction with the request, wherein the content exchange serviceidentifies content placement opportunities by matching at least aportion of the first client device IP address with at least a portion ofthe second client device IP address.
 10. A method for intelligentmulti-device content distribution based on associated internet protocol(IP) addressing, the method comprising: identifying, by a computerprocessor, first advertising content served to a first client device;identifying a first client device IP address corresponding to the firstclient device, wherein the first client device is linked to a householdprofile; submitting a request for content placement opportunities;receiving content placement opportunities identifying at least a portionof a second client device IP address of a second client device; linkingthe second client device to the household profile by: determining apercentage of requests of the second client device originating from anIP address common with the first client device IP address; comparing thepercentage to a predefined threshold; and linking the second clientdevice to the household profile based on determining that the thresholdis exceeded; selecting second advertising content based on the firstadvertising content; and providing the second advertising content forthe content placement opportunity to be displayed on the second clientdevice.
 11. The method of claim 10, wherein the first advertisingcontent and the second advertising content are related.
 12. The methodof claim 10, wherein the first advertising content and the secondadvertising content are the same.
 13. The method of claim 10, whereinthe first client device is a non-mobile television client.
 14. Themethod of claim 10, further comprising determining that the first clientdevice is a non-mobile television client, wherein the determiningcomprises at least one selected from a group consisting of: determiningthat multiple content requests from the first client device originatefrom the same geographic location, analyzing media access control (MAC)address information corresponding to the first client device, analyzingmake, model, type, or category information corresponding to the firstclient device, analyzing the content served to the first client device,analyzing user submitted indications about the first client device, andanalyzing information associating the first client device with thehousehold from a third party entity.
 15. The method of claim 10, whereinthe first client device is a mobile device.
 16. The method of claim 10,wherein the first client device and the second client device are thesame device.
 17. The method of claim 10, wherein the household profilerepresents a grouping of related computing devices.
 18. The method ofclaim 10, further comprising: providing the first client device IPaddress to a content exchange service in conjunction with the request,wherein the content exchange service identifies content placementopportunities by matching at least a portion of the first client deviceIP address with at least a portion of the second client device IPaddress.
 19. A non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumcomprising a plurality of instructions for intelligent multi-devicecontent distribution, the plurality of instructions executing on atleast one computer processor to enable the computer processor to:identify first advertising content served to a first client device;identify a first client device IP address associated with the firstclient device, wherein the first client device is linked to a householdprofile; submit a request for content placement opportunities; receivecontent placement opportunities identifying at least a portion of asecond client device IP address of a second client device; linking thesecond client device to the household profile by: determining apercentage of requests of the second client device originating from anIP address common with the first client device IP address; comparing thepercentage to a predefined threshold; and linking the second clientdevice to the household profile based on determining that the thresholdis exceeded; select second advertising content based on the firstadvertising content; and provide the second advertising content for thecontent placement opportunity to be displayed on the second clientdevice.
 20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim19, wherein the first advertising content and the second advertisingcontent are related.